REVIEWS

TOP AUDIO PICKS...

Bookpage selects THE WINTER STATION as their top audio pick of March: “Based on real events, this is the kind of fiction that fascinates with its power to evoke time and place, morality and mortality, tenderness and love.”

CRITICAL REVIEWS...

“This striking novel is based on a little-known outbreak of pneumonic plague in 1910. Human courage, tenacity, and love confront overwhelming mortality. Like a delicate calligraphy, Jody Shields paints a starkly moving picture of our elusive humanity, as ephemeral and beautiful as snowflakes falling from a frozen sky. The images are unforgettable, and the book highly recommended.”Editor's Choice, ―Historical Novel Society

"The true gift of this remarkable novel is its lyrical portrayal of the Baron and his few allies...Shields (The Fig Eater) joins the high echelon of Boris Akunin and Sam Eastland in re-creating a time when science and reason vie with superstition and prejudice to protect the helpless subjects of the tsar."―Library Journal

"[Readers will be] captivated by the atmosphere and the various, essay-like ruminations, which evoke Peter Høeg's Smilla's Sense of Snow (1993)."―Booklist

"The outbreak of plague in Manchuria during the winter of 1910-1911 tests a Russian doctor's physical, emotional, and moral stamina in Shields's accomplished third novel...This fictional portrait of a man caught in a real-life medical crisis proves affecting and timely in its exploration of conflicts between cultures and classes, ambition and mortality, science and politics."―Publisher's Weekly

"perfect for readers of historical fiction and lovers of thrillers."―Signature

"During a bone-chillingly cold winter in a Russian-controlled outpost city in Manchuria, people are mysteriously dropping dead, their bodies vanishing before they can be identified or examined for cause of death. The city’s medical commissioner begins to investigate and realizes the city is gripped by a deadly plague."―NYPost

Jody Shields’ entry into the canon of pathogen literature, The Winter Station, exposes the agonizing anxiety only one type of enemy can conjure. What Shields evokes in her greatest passages, as her czarist Baron battles an epidemic in turn of the century Harbin, is a fear that pours from the temples: the recognition that we can be set against a swift and terrible force majeure, the scythe of God.―Paste Magazine​

REVIEWS FROM OTHER AUTHORS...

"The Winter Station is a novel set in Russia that to its great credit reads like a Russian novel. Set early in the 20th Century, it is a story of courage, love, resilience, loyalty during a season of absolute terror. Jody Shields is a fearless writer, with the integrity of a worthy creator, and this novel won't be easily forgotten."―Daniel Woodrell, author of The Maid's Version and Winter's Bone

"In The Winter Station, Shields imagines a new season, one vibrant with intrigue, longing, and history... This book bears a distinct pulse; its beats are tender, evocative, and full of mystery."―Affinity Konar, author of Mischling